Choose Your Influences

Luke 6: 40 - A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

So much of who we are has been shaped by those who have influenced us. One of my mother’s favorite pictures is of my two year old self standing inside my father’s boots. Of course, the appearance of a small boy inside large boots is comical. Yet, seeing my father take those boots off every day after working the farm presented a compelling image to me at that age: This is what it means to be a man.

Jesus’ words remind us that we become like those we learn from. My views and values were shaped early on by my parents and teachers. When I became a leader of my own team in the Air Force, I found myself leading much like my first team leader. When I became a youth pastor, I followed many of the patterns and examples of my own youth pastors. As a lead pastor, I did many of the same things I had seen in my lead pastors. As a professor I adopted the methods of my favorite teachers. Now as a dean, I continually fall back on the pattern I saw in the two deans I served.

I have really enjoyed teaching and serving in Christian colleges, and I have really seen this principle played out: Education is as much about the educators as it is the content taught. One thing I love to see here at Southeastern University is so many of our faculty eating, drinking coffee, or just sitting and talking with students. Doing life together like this is shaping the future.

The first question of application for all of us, then, is who is influencing us? Who do we learn from? We will become like them. The second is: who are we influencing? Are we presenting good models for them to follow?